Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Buckwheat Festival:Beginning

Each year, my little town celebrates a harvest homecoming...the Buckwheat Festival. Named for the crop, not Alfalfa's friend. It is a BIG deal. It is so big that school is closed on Thursday and Friday and Monday and Tuesday!
Here is how it begins each year....

Billboards in the neighboring towns.

September 4

All of the trash barrels.

September 7

The benches. The hot dog stand is in the background and this is the field where the fair is set up.

My school is right behind the hot dog stand in this picture.

Can you imagine how excited the kids get?

Here's the link to my blog from last year at this time...might as well use the excitement

More tents up and some of the trash barrels from earlier photo placed about.

September 24

More rides. See the benches and the field behind them all filled up now?

September 27

﻿And tonight, they are having the rides open for the 1st time and they call it Suicide Night. Scary! But when I drove by tonight after serving buckwheat cakes at my church, it was full of people having fun.

I will take more pictures this weekend to show you how our sweet, sleepy little town of about 3000 swells to a raucus and rowdy 100,000 or so. Buckwheat Festival weather is deemed a success if it doesn't monsoon. They are predicting a possibility of snow and a high of 42 on Saturday. Can't wait to show you some more of my favorite festival! Stay tuned.

8 comments:

WOW! The weather!!! And the transformation!! And 100K people? REALLY? I think that would drive me crazy. And who cleans up after all of this, because in OUR town - which used to be under 25K (excluding the university) and now far bigger - the 4th of July parade provides a bumper crop of litter. I'm just too pragmatic. But how exciting - for kids and all. FOUR DAYS OFF? That's better than what we used to get in New York for Yom Kipper!!

I have tried to reply to these comments for 3 days. Blogger kept eating them. Trying again.***Kristen, I might feel differently about the whole thing if I didn't live within walking distance of all the festivities. The traffic and parking does get a bit hairy. We actually park our cars at the school so friends can use our driveway if they need to. The volunteer firemen are in charge of this whole shebang and it is really all cleaned up so that you would not even know it happened by next weekend.***Tanna, I hope my pictures give you a real feel. I wish you could hear it and smell it all, too.***WSW, not to worry. We get the week of Thanksgiving off for hunting too! Want me to send you a bag of buckwheat flour? It is grown and ground here.

Mmmmmmm. Buckwheat cakes. I wonder if I could find buckwheat flour somewhere around here. Maybe at the healthfood store. Sending a bag would be way too expensive! Okay, do the schools get the whole week off too????

I may have to switch careers and become a teacher, and relocate. And eat buckwheat cakes whenever I want to.

WSW, good news! I just found out today that most of the buckwheat used here comes from Canada! So, you might have luck....if not, let me know...maybe a little bag wouldn't be too much. And yes, the schools are closed the whole 1st week of hunting season! See? Good news all around.

A Peek...

I believe that God is a creator God and that because I am created in His image, I am also a creator. I am about to embark on a MAJOR creative endeavor-homebuilding! Me, my little husband, 1 big dog and 3 cats.
I am looking forward to joy in the journey...come and join me!